Page 3 - Malatesta

Alberto Malatesta: 20 years of activity at the Geological Survey of Italy 13

was promulgated by the Italian governe-
ment to edit, update and publish the Geo-
logical Map of Italy at scale 1:100.000 and
the related Illustrative Notes. All Italian Uni-
versities, public and private organizations
and Autonomous Regions took part to such
activity, under the qualified supervision of
the Geological Committee, headed by Ardi-
to Desio. Malatesta became part of the
staff of the during such a period of intense
activity in almost every scientific research
sector both in the field and in the laborato-
ries. During his work at the Geological Sur-
vey of Italy, A. Malatesta contributed to the
elaboration of many geological sheets, car-
rying out both the geological survey of the
Plio-Pleisticene units and the palaeontolog-
ical analyses on the fossil remains he had
collected. In particular, he worked at the
realization of the following geological
sheets: N° 111 “Livorno”, N° 272 “Gela”,
N° 192 “Alghero”, N° 193 “Bonorva”,
N° 163 “Lucera”, N° 175 “Cerignola”,
N° 197 “Amalfi”, N° 149 “Cerveteri”, N° 121
“Montepulciano”, N° 122 “Perugia”, N° 127
“Piombino”, N° 148 “Vasto”, N° 115 “Città
di Castello”, N° 173 “Benevento”, N° 167-
168 “Isola Rossa - La Maddalena”, N° 169
“Caprera”, N° 256 “Egadi Islands” (unpub-
lished) (Fig. 2).
In Fig. 3 the original headings of the
geological sheets at 1:100.000 scale, to
the realization of which A. Malatesta col-
laborated, are reported.
Not all the above mentioned sheets
were featuring the Illustrative Notes
scarce information has been found in the Staff Historical (Tab. 1). A. Malatesta, although not mentioned among
Archive of the Geological Survey, since a lot of docu- the authors, provided scientific contributions about
ments have gone lost due to the various movings of the Plio-Pleistocene macrofauna and field data for some of
Survey during the last twenty years. Nevertheless, them.
thanks to the annual activity reports of the Survey pub- It is worth to note that, for different reasons (lack
lished in the appendix of the Bollettino del Servizio Geo- of topographical bases, insufficient funds, reduced
logico d’Italia, it was possible to find precious indications staff, etc.), not all the geological field surveys ended
about charges and activities he carried out. with a printed geological sheet. Anyway, even these
unpublished activities are documented in the archive of
the Geological Survey of Italy. In the archive, for ex-
2. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY ACTIVITY ample, it is recorded the geological field survey of the
Sheet N° 256 “Isole Egadi”. Figs. 4, 5, 6 and 7 illu-
nd
After the end of the 2 World War, noticeable re- strate the original handmade geological maps of the
search founds were assigned to the Geological Survey Favignana and Marettimo islands and the relative le-
of Italy. In 1960 the Law 3-1-1960 n. 15 (“Sullo” Law) gends with autograph annotations.